Little mention of economic reality

It was an inaugural address that at times aspired to Obama’s best oratory but at other times it sounded like a laundry list of well worn re-election campaign themes, with something missing at the middle.
Photo: AFP

In his second inaugural address, a confident
Barack Obama
sought to put his own gloss on the Declaration of Independence.

It was “life, liberty and the pursuit of collective happiness" that the President pledged on a chilly Washington day to uphold in his second term in the White House.

Not in so many words, of course.

But that was the meaning of an inaugural address that barely glanced at the engines of American prosperity – economic growth, the private sector, shale energy – before plunging into the things that really animate Barack Obama and upset his Republican foes:

Training more maths and science teachers; building the roads, networks and laboratories of the future; extending equal pay to all women, equal rights to gays, equal opportunities to all Americans; finding a better way to welcome immigrants “who still see America as a land of opportunity"; ensuring all children are cared for and cherished; responding to climate change.

“Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people," the President said.

It was an inaugural address that at times aspired to Obama’s best oratory, as he appealed to the common causes that he believes should unite Americans, Republican or Democrat. But at other times it sounded like a laundry list of well worn re-election campaign themes, with something missing at the middle.

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Recognition of the central challenges of present and future US governments – reining in the runaway costs of healthcare and the size of future federal deficits, generating more tax revenue through sweeping tax reform, igniting economic growth and job creation – was scant.

Nowhere was there an acknowledgment that the tax revenue to build the highways, networks and laboratories and train the maths and science teachers for the jobs of tomorrow, and the jobs of tomorrow themselves, won’t be there without a thriving private sector.

Nowhere did the President mention that the scourge of inequality – a worthy target in itself for any President – won’t be beaten without thriving private enterprises.

Nowhere was there a hint that harnessing this energy revolution to fuel desperately needed economic growth might be a worthwhile second-term goal, or that shale was making plausible a goal that Obama mocked less than two years ago: Drilling for energy independence.

And nowhere was there any acknowledgment that Iran’s intransigence on its nuclear ambitions and the unravelling of the Arab Spring in Libya, Syria, Mali and now Algeria at least challenge the President’s reaffirmed commitment to “engagement “ with America’s enemies – if not openly mock it, as his opponents claim.

Inaugural addresses are not meant to be comprehensive summaries of a president’s agenda, like the coming State of the Union address.

They’re more appeals to unity and statements of broad vision and intent. Equal rights and opportunities, better education, immigration reform, gun control, successfully implement health care reforms – these are worthy goals that a re-elected president is justified in pursuing.

But they’re not going to bring the Republicans into unity with a President who gives such short shrift to America’s twin deficits and entitlements crises.

Obama won’t achieve these goals if he can’t resolve the tension between enlarging the role of the state and putting in place a plan to control spending and deficits, or lift the economy from its 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent growth path to something closer to the recovery rates of the past.

And it’s hard to see how he is going to achieve those essential things if he doesn’t see them as sufficiently central to his second term to be worth dedicating his administration to in the inaugural address.

Maybe, just maybe, the President will surprise us in the State of the Union on February 12.